Long story short, Im looking for a way to keep my free ranging birds from wondering through the woods (about 75 yards to my neighbors garden. My coop is about 20 feet off the property line and there is no fence there just woods. I never realized that they would wonder through the woods that far but they are causing problems between us and the neighbors.

Any suggestions? Im thinking that Im going to have to at least put a welded wire fence down the property line but that will only be good until they figure out that they can fly over it, so Im all ears. My only other choice is to leave them in the run all the time and I really dont want to have to do that. The property line is about 300' long.

Clip their wings and they wont fly over. I would do a property line thing. And the woods can hide predetors like hawks, coons, possums, etc. Mine stay in my yard close to my house. They sometimes go to neighbors yard but its right next to my house, and they do not stay long.
You can teach them to come when called. Mine come running and flapping when I call, usually means I hwve goodies.

I would put up as tall as you can afford 2x3 or 2x4 woven wire fence without a board on top. If you are worried they will fly, clip the wings. You can go the extra mile and put a hot wire on top of or at the bottom of the fence. Depending on what breeds you have, most heavies won't go over a 5 ft. high fence. I just clip the wings of the few that learn how to fly around, and the rest stay put. Good luck, but that saying "Fences make the best neighbors", I totally agree. HenZ

Quote:The birds usually free range only when we are home and outside all day doing yard work or fooling around with the horses or the coop like I was doing today. We also have dogs in our yard and over the last 7 months are so,we have not had any problems with predators on our property what so ever.

What really sucks about all this is that the neighbors use their place as a weekend house and are only around once maybe twice a month. I've talked to them twice now in 7 months. Today because of the birds and about 5 months ago when I was out in the front cutting grass. I know the animals are my responsibility and all but for whatever reason this just chaps my rear. Anyway, the birds I have now are NH's RIR's, BR's, and Black Sexlinks. I will be getting rid of all these birds in the Spring and they will be replace by some Sizzles and Silkies and maybe some other small breed birds. I'll still have large fowl but the ones that I'll have at that time will not be free range birds at all. Another problem I'm sitting here thinking about is trees right on the property line. Putting a fence up will be a ton of work unless I want to loose a bunch of realestate down that side. I have about 10 Pine trees with a base of about 24" right on the property line.

I would say get a roll of fence 4x100, use the trees and fence posts, and make a free range area for them. That's what we do... They don't fly over because the have both open and tree area to grub thru. I got mine from home depot for like 70 bucks... I had a discount coupon for some reason tho...

Quote:I could build a tractor to do that....they will just stay in the run during the day until I figure something out I guess.

Quote:Yea that's what my wife was telling me I should do. That would actually be the easiest thing to do right now. I just need to figure out a way to get the birds from the run to the free range area unless I Incorporated the coop and run inside of the free range area.

Quote:What really sucks is that kind of thinking. It doesn't matter if they're only there once a year, it's still their property and if they don't want what isn't theirs *on* their property, you should'nt be getting upset in *any* kind of way about it. It seems to me you've got plenty of property and are complaining that just because your birds want to be on someone elses property should be 'okay' simply because the owners of the other property aren't there enough to your liking to have a say in it. I'll more than likely get banned for being so honest in my opinion about this and for talking straight up no BS, but IMO it needed to be said. Put the fence up and keep the peace. Respect what ain't yours, in this case, the neighbors property and wishes.

Quote:What really sucks is that kind of thinking. It doesn't matter if they're only there once a year, it's still their property and if they don't want what isn't theirs *on* their property, you should'nt be getting upset in *any* kind of way about it. It seems to me you've got plenty of property and are complaining that just because your birds want to be on someone elses property should be 'okay' simply because the owners of the other property aren't there enough to your liking to have a say in it. I'll more than likely get banned for being so honest in my opinion about this and for talking straight up no BS, but IMO it needed to be said. Put the fence up and keep the peace. Respect what ain't yours, in this case, the neighbors property and wishes.

Youre entitled to your opinions and Ill respect them but before you go off half cocked again please re-read the very next thing that I wrote after what you had highlighted

I've talked to them twice now in 7 months. Today because of the birds and about 5 months ago when I was out in the front cutting grass. I know the animals are my responsibility and all but for whatever reason this just chaps my rear.

Another thing I might add now that I did not say in any of my previous post is .but before you read on keep in mind that I already said this once now and I will say it again to be clear . I know the animals are my responsibility .

So yesterday when the neighbor came over to tell me about the birds he told me that in the beginning they (both he and his wife) thought it was great having the birds around and they would sit outside and feed the birds when they were there. So as he telling me all this, Im thinking great, you may not have caused the problem originally but you certainly didnt help it by feeding them. So now when the birds hear them over there at their place they go looking for food, thats what animals do. Yep, its not the neighbors fault nor is it their problem, its mine because Im a responsible pet owner. But really, none of this makes me feel any better and you going off not knowing me or the entire situation doesnt really help either.

Im just simply looking for a solution to a problem that I have and figured that someone else on here may have come across this before. Ive spent all morning looking into fencing and its going to cost me about 500.00 to fence down that side of the property, the rest of my property is fenced off. So for the time being I have a covered run that is 12x20 for 15 birds and an insulated coop that they can say in. More than enough room for them just not what I enjoy the most.